Meta Platforms stock experiences slight increase amid analyst upgrades

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) saw its stock price rise by 1% on Monday, reaching a high of $698.12 before closing at $696.41. The trading session involved 8,281,089 shares, a notable decline of 46% from the average volume of 15,444,609 shares. Previously, the stock closed at $689.18.

Multiple analysts have recently commented on META's stock. Arete Research upgraded the rating to "hold" on January 24th, while Cantor Fitzgerald increased its price target from $720.00 to $790.00, maintaining an "overweight" rating on January 30th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market outperform" rating with a target price of $750.00 on January 27th, and Wolfe Research raised its target from $670.00 to $730.00, providing an "outperform" rating on January 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus also revised its price target from $590.00 to $663.00 and designated a "buy" rating on October 14th. A total of 35 analysts have issued a buy rating, while two assigned a strong buy rating, resulting in an average rating of "Moderate Buy" with a consensus target price of $710.83.

The company boasts a market cap of $1.78 trillion, a P/E ratio of 29.47, and a P/E/G ratio of 1.47. The current and quick ratio stand at 2.98, with a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The 50-day moving average price is $618.86, while the 200-day moving average price is $570.21.

In its last earnings announcement on January 29th, Meta reported earnings of $8.02 per share, surpassing the $6.75 consensus estimate by $1.27. The company experienced a return on equity of 38.17% and a net margin of 37.91%, significantly up from the previous year's $5.33 EPS. Analysts predict an EPS of 25.94 for the current year.

Recently, Meta declared a quarterly dividend of $0.50, which was paid on December 27th. This amounts to an annualized dividend of $2.00, yielding 0.28%. The ex-dividend date was December 16th, and the payout ratio is currently at 8.36%.

In shareholder transactions, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sold 35,921 shares on December 3rd at an average price of $607.97, totaling approximately $21.84 million. CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 5,057 shares on November 15th at an average price of $577.16, amounting to nearly $2.92 million. Over the last three months, company insiders sold 673,878 shares, valued at $416.27 million, and currently own 13.71% of the stock.

An influx of hedge funds and institutional investors has recently changed their positions in the company. Notably, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position by 57,001.5% in the third quarter, now owning over 9.5 million shares worth approximately $5.45 billion. Several other hedge funds have similarly increased their holdings significantly during the last quarter.

Meta Platforms develops various products to connect users through devices and applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, comprising its Family of Apps and Reality Labs segments. This analysis was generated using narrative science technology and financial insights from MarketBeat.